superior to the world, and
has been present throughout the whole of the Christian era; and it is
this Substance which has raised men beyond the merely human situation;
it is the Substance that has enabled men to overcome the world, and
afterwards to see the world from the standpoint of the Divine. In this
work of differentiation we are dependent in a very large measure upon
the results of knowledge. Such results do not grant us the Substance of
Christianity, because this is something which has to be lived into in
order to be possessed. The transformation which occurs on account of a
change in the Existential-form may indeed prove helpful to the spiritual
nucleus itself, because it represents a truth of the intellect-a truth
which does not conflict with any [p.185] knowledge outside its own
sphere. There are many dangers to be discovered in this process of
interpreting the spiritual nucleus. A mode of interpretation whose
meaning has very largely passed away is bound to prove injurious,
because it comes into sharp conflict with a newer and more comprehensive
meaning, and consequently Christianity fails to win the support of those
who are acquainted with the new Existential-form. And even the
individual who retains the old clothing, and looks upon it as being
something of the same nature as the spiritual nucleus, is in danger of
basing a portion of his religion on a foundation of sand. But, on the
other hand, he who is aware of the flaws of the old Existential-form
without having assimilated the Spiritual Substance which lies beneath
it, is in danger of drifting from religion altogether. The only way of
serving best and carrying farther the development of the Christian
religion is to grasp and experience deeply the fact that the Spiritual
Substance is something entirely different from its form of existence.
Its form of existence is an attempt to account for the Substance; it
consists of intellectual concepts. And as with everything else in this
world so with religion; mere intellectual concepts change, and cannot be
more than receptacles used by the human mind to enshrine the things
which are presented as meanings and values within the soul.

[p.186] Eucken pays great attention to the necessity of this process of
differentiation between the two elements in Christianity. There is a
need to-day of a new form of existence for Christianity; but the
satisfaction of this need will not grant us the spiritual nucleus
itself. The